The East Kent Festival Cluster has brought together the region’s cultural festivals for the first time to stage an interdisciplinary opera, ‘Xenon’. It was launched as part of the ‘Sounds New’ contemporary music festival in Canterbury. Visitors to were encouraged to record messages, using Bluetooth technology, for imagined alien visitors. Each message was attached to a balloon to form a floating choir of simultaneously played thoughts.
Mary Cloake, the Director of the Arts Council of Ireland, has called for the economic contribution of the arts not to be overlooked amidst fears that the Arts Council will suffer under a new budget. More than 3,000 people work for the 400 Arts Council-funded organisations, as was highlighted at a recent conference, generating an annual turnover of €192m and tax revenue of €50m.
The Acorn Arts Centre in Penzance will close at the end of August. The Trustees have taken this decision “with enormous regret” but called the move unavoidable as it will be “unable to pay its staff and its overhead costs” beyond that date. Cornwall Council is the only funder that currently makes an annual contribution to the venue.
‘Converging Pathways to New Knowledge’ is a new publication from LabforCulture, which considers the future of knowledge building and knowledge sharing. It examines the different aspects of a “digital shift”, following a series of online debates and a roundtable event which brought together foundations, governments and cultural organisations to further reflect on the impact of the digital shift.
The Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) has launched a film, ‘We’re Coming Home’, to assist fundraising efforts for their Transforming Our Theatres appeal. The RSC has £5.5m left to raise to reach its £112.8m goal. The film has been created by RSC actor turned film director, Chris McGill, and has involved over 160 Warwickshire volunteers. RSC alumni, including Sir Anthony Sher, David Warner and Jonathan Slinger, have also helped by recreating audio clips from some of their RSC performances.
http://www.rsc.org.uk/transformation
The Bristol Old Vic has released updated plans for the £19.3m redevelopment of the theatre’s historic site. Work scheduled to be started in the autumn includes the creation of two new performance spaces; refurbishment of the auditorium, including new seating and a new layout that will enhance comfort, increase capacity and improve sightlines; the creation of a Theatre Heritage Centre, and expansion of rehearsal space, offices, technical facilities and dressing rooms.
http://www.bristololdvic.org.uk
The latest research from the Art Fund reveals that more than 60% of museums surveyed think that avoiding cuts under the new government is the biggest challenge they face. ‘Collecting Challenge 2010’, which surveyed 276 UK museums, found that only 45% of curators said that their collecting ambitions were being met, compared with more than 70% in 2006.
Arts Audiences, a partnership between the Arts Council of Ireland and Temple Bar Cultural Trust, has published the first of three reports documenting the results of its ‘Build Your Audience’ scheme. In the report, Jenny Traynor of CoisCeim Dance Theatre and marketing consultant Heather Maitland explore audience development for touring productions.
A new music studio which will give people with disabilities the opportunity to write, play and record their own music has opened in Craigmillar, Edinburgh. The idea for the facility came from Edinburgh-based disability arts organisation Drake Music Scotland, who secured The Proclaimers as patrons, and has been made possible with £48,478 from the Big Lottery Fund.